BS in Public Health, current RN..advice needed

[EMEddie]

Hello guys.

i am one class away from completing my BS in Public Health. Before being accepted to a 2 year associate degree nursing program I was working in the above degree mentioned.

My goal is to become an FNP. This fall semester I'm going back to the university where I was working in my BS and complete it. Currently I am debating two options: Finish my BS and take a couple extra classes and apply to NP programs or finish my BS (one class left) and also do an RN - BSN, which would take an extra 2-3 semesters and 10-12K more and then apply to NP programs.

what have you people who, had a previous closely related field did when considering NP programs? Schools like UCLA, UC DAVIS, UCI, AND UCSF allow nurses with a bachelors degree and an RN license to apply to their programs.

i just don't know if I should spend the extra money and time. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks in advance

[zmansc, ASN, RN]

There are a relatively small number of programs that will take an RN with a non-BSN bachelors degree and train them to be a NP. There are far more that will take a nurse with a BSN to either a MSN or DNP trained NP. The question you are asking is really one that only you can answer.

You will have to identify your requirements for your education and based on those requirements identify the program or programs that will meet your needs. Some of the things to think about:

- What type of NP program are you interested in? (FNP, ACNP, PMHNP, etc).

- Do you want to have online/physical/mixed class structure?

- Do you prefer to have a say in who your preceptors are, or prefer to have them assigned by the program?

- How much time will you be able to dedicate to your learning?

- What is your financial situation? (How much debt are you willing to take on, will you have to work during school, how expensive of a program are you willing to consider, etc)

This is just a very small list of questions to get you started. Once you start asking these questions, you will be much more ready to formulate a criteria for identifying what programs are more likely to be of interest to you. Once you have identified the answers to some of these questions you will probably rule out several of the programs you were thinking about. You may have to revisit several of these questions and your answers several times as you search for programs that fit your needs.

In any case, I would suspect you will find that having a BSN would give you many more options than not having one, but you still might find a program that will take your present BS degree + RN and meet your criteria, so it is certainly worth trying.